


Sleeping Beauty

by Ziane



Category: Founder of Diabolism, The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Genre: Almost Kiss, Boys In Love, Falling In Love, Fluff, M/M, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-18 01:08:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18110225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ziane/pseuds/Ziane
Summary: Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, and Nie Huaisang come back to the Cloud Recesses after a night out carousing.





	Sleeping Beauty

**Author's Note:**

> I had this silly idea last night when I was in bed and I had to write it (°◡°♡).:｡

Swathed by darkness and mischief, three unruly disciples huddle together not for warmth but for necessity. Gusu nights are chillier than what Jiang Cheng is used to, and he shivers at how the breeze seeps through his garments at every step of their short way back. Nie Huaisang hooks his arms over their shoulders and struggles to put one foot in front of the other. At some point half-way there, they gave up and dragged him instead. “Why did you challenge him to drink more jars than you?” Jiang Cheng chides, grasping Nie Huaisang’s wrist more securely as they approach the bordering wall or the Cloud Recesses.

“He won,” Wei Wuxian quips.

“Passing out doesn’t count as winning,” Jiang Cheng retorts. “And you’re as fresh as ever.”

“Huaisang-xiong still drank half a jar more than me.” Wei Wuxian’s smugness makes him roll his eyes. “Until I finish this one and dethrone him.” He dangles the cord of an extra jar of Emperor’s Smile he brought just for himself. “Get him.” Wei Wuxian lets go of Nie Huaisang’s waist before Jiang Cheng can keep scolding him and climbs up the wall in a rehearsed, gracious, movement. He has become an expert avoiding the patrolling security after curfew, but sometimes Lan Wangji’s instincts guide him exactly where he is, so he’s become extremely wary too.

Jiang Cheng mumbles a curse when Nie Huaisang dangles in front of him like a puppet, unable to cling to him with just one strengthless arm around his neck. His wobbly legs cannot support him any longer and he slips from his hold. The indisposed disciple slips to the front and is about to fall on his knees when Jiang Cheng grasps his upper arm and his waist, steadying him against his chest. “Huaisang-xiong,” he whispers, but there’s nothing more than a murmur as an answer. He’s sound asleep.

With a deep sigh of annoyance, Jiang Cheng winds an arm behind his upper back and another one behind his knees and lifts him in his arms. Nie Huaisang thrashes his head back, his folding fan hanging from his wrist in the same careless way. Jiang Cheng clicks his tongue, fumbling around until the weightless drunk in his arms rests his head against his chest. Another unintelligible mumble comes out of those rosy, pouting lips. Jiang Cheng stares at him with a knot between his eyebrows and a lump in his throat. He’s not used to this either, and he’s had too much wine too.

Nie Huaisang weights nothing, light and delicate even if he’s in this condition because he downed three jars of Emperor’s Smile on his own. His short, black hair, frames his face; his cheeks are flushed in a pink even noticeable under the moonlight, long lashes fall over them and it makes Jiang Cheng hold him tighter. Just in case he slips from his arms again. Nie Huaisang opens his eyes a slit but closes them again after a gasp as though he deemed he is safe and cared for and wants to continue sleeping.

“What a nuisance,” Jiang Cheng mumbles. But in truth, he’s not annoyed at Wei Wuxian making him wait while he scouts the surroundings nor the coldness of the night robbing him of the warmth of his bed. He’s bedazzled by the peerless, innocent beauty in his arms, trying to discern the many features that entice him and that the moonlight enhances. The scenery is like one of those tales her sister told them when they were little; when the protagonist came to the rescue and carried their beloved in their arms.

Except that Nie Huaisang is just drunk, and he saved him from nothing, not even from his embarrassment. And that he is not his beloved nor Jiang Cheng is besotted with Nie Huaisang.

“Come -he beckons at him- now it’s safe.” Jiang Cheng lifts his gaze and turns beet-red as if he had been caught red-handed admiring Nie Huaisang in his sleep and thinking about silly, romantic stories for weak hearts. Not that Wei Wuxian noticed. He extends a hand to help him up but Jiang Cheng snorts and overcomes the leap of his heart with another leap up the wall.

He taps his foot on the ground and jumps on top of the wall like a weightless feather even with Nie Huaisang in his arms. The cute stowaway snuggles against him and he almost trips as he lands on the slippery tiles. Nie Huaisang clasps his fan and the lapel of his uniform. “Cheng-xiong?” he murmurs behind hooded lids. Wei Wuxian chuckles at the scene and doesn’t comment on Jiang Cheng’s terrified expression.

“Why don’t you carry him on your back?” Wei Wuxian teases, landing inside the Cloud Recesses.

“You want to die?” Jiang Cheng warns.

It’s a quick walk toward the dormitories when Wei Wuxian clears the way as they go. They arrive unseen and with a stash of wine that sadly Wei Wuxian himself will finish before dawn. Jiang Cheng follows him, trying not to get distracted anymore with Nie Huaisang and how he still clings to the lapels of his garments, his face tenderly resting against his chest, and his steady breathing against his body. He’s failing miserably.

Jiang Cheng stops at their door and Wei Wuxian gets inside. “You’re not going to help?” he cocks his head, pointing at Nie Huaisang.

“You got it under control.” Wei Wuxian grants him a smug grin and slumps on his bed, ready to enjoy the last jar of Emperor’s Smile of the night and his meaningless victory. Jiang Cheng glowers at him. “Don’t look at me like that, I’ll save some for you.”

Rolling his eyes, Jiang Cheng gives up and walks down the hall. Nie Huaisang’s room is a single, probably because this is his third year studying at the Cloud Recesses. Near the bed, there’s a stack of books, a few jutting from underneath the bed. There’s no need to tell what those are. Jiang Cheng turns on his heels and takes in the surroundings. The walls are wrapped in finished paintings and sketches of drifting clouds, distant mountains, swallows, dragons, flowers, rivers. Beautiful sceneries Nie Huaisang draws whenever he has the chance. They bring a smile to his lips and a curl to his stomach. He feels like he’s peeking at a part of Nie Huaisang’s soul and the things he put his heart into. And what a beautiful heart.

His desk is another mess of piled books, ancient rolls, watercolors, and brushes. Nie Huaisang writhes in his arms, catching his attention. He should tuck him in and call it a night. Jiang Cheng sighs, leaning over the bed as he lays Nie Huaisang there. A treacherous smile creeps up his lips when he sees his hair sprawled on the pillow and gets a closer look to those flustered cheeks. But soon he recovers his composure and straightens, only to realize Nie Huaisang clings to his upper garments.

Jiang Cheng grasps his hand, trying to let go. The fan hangs from the cord around his wrist again, but his fingers cling to him. At the touch of his warm hand around his, Nie Huaisang opens his eyes a slit and then all the way through. Those dark, golden eyes meet his gaze. Bleary and brimming with emotions Jiang Cheng cannot discern. It makes him feel uneasy and strangely flattered.

“You…” A shy smile stops Jiang Cheng’s heart at a halt, and he braces himself on the bed when Nie Huaisang tugs at his garments to pull him onward. “You’re so handsome, w-wan…”

“Wei Ying?” He frowns. An unjustified pang of jealousy crosses his heart unmercifully.

Nie Huaisang snorts, using the little strength of his weary body to cling to Jiang Cheng as he lifts his head from the pillow. He’s so close he breathes out the words into his mouth, but his eyes never leave him, and his hand has no intention to let go just yet. “You, Jiang Wanyin.” His breath is tainted by the scent of the Emperor’s Smile.

Gobsmacked, Jiang Cheng blinks twice, his heart drumming at a restless tempo, his head spinning, his lips parting as though he wanted to do the unthinkable and take his mouth after the revelation. He should back off, stop him, but Nie Huaisang puffs his ragged breath onto his lips, waiting for Jiang Cheng to close the distance between them. Could he? Should he? Before Jiang Cheng can dwell on his inner turmoil, Nie Huaisang hides the luscious beauty of his gaze behind his lids and slumps back onto the pillow with a deep sigh. Jiang Cheng mumbles a curse at his stupidity and suddenly weak knees. Nie Huaisang is sound asleep again, and he still holds his hand.

A hint of disappointment invades him, but Jiang Cheng settles for a kiss on his knuckles. It’s brief; barely a brush of the lips, but he still feels like a thief at the inappropriate gesture. He places his hand back over his chest and, before he loses himself in the peaceful image of Nie Huaisang sleeping, he leaves the room and closes the door that separates him from something more delicious and forbidden than wine. His heart thumps into his chest and his hands are clammy. He needs to gather himself before he reaches their room but it’s obvious he wears his own confused heart on his sleeve. Wei Wuxian will notice.

“How’s the sleeping beauty?” Wei Wuxian asks as soon as he’s inside the room. He lies on the bed, drinking and tapping his foot in the air.

“Sleeping.” Jiang Cheng pushes his legs aside and sits at the feet of the bed, beckoning him to hand him the jar of wine.

“Oh,” Wei Wuxian says, narrowing his eyes and ready to tease him. “So you think Nie Huaisang is pretty…”

“Wei Wuxian!” Jiang Cheng nudges him, stealing the jar and taking a long gulp to help him make sense of what happened and why. He shoots Wei Wuxian a furtive sidelong, but he dismisses the idea of asking him about this because he’d be enduring his teasing for way too long. Jiang Cheng takes another long gulp instead, his cheeks burning, his heart swelling by the almost stolen kiss he could’ve taken unabashedly. His first kiss.

“I think he thinks you’re pretty,” Wei Wuxian says.

Jiang Cheng chokes on the wine, gives the jar back and after a punch on his shoulder that muffles the laughs momentarily, he gets in his bed and curses his bad luck. Somewhere in another room, Nie Huaisang suppresses a sly smile while his lips rub against those recently kissed knuckles until he falls asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡ My sangcheng heart feels better now xDDD  
> PS: I should let them kiss properly, right? xDDD


End file.
